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Tom’s Guide
Tom’s Guide
Technology
Alan Martin

NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #353 (Wednesday, February 19 2025)

NYT Strands on a cellphone.
Strands today: Quick menu

Need some assistance with NYT Strands today? Today's theme — "Pick your own prefix" — is a rather clever one that it took an embarrassing amount of time to click for me.

Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #353, as well as the answers, should it come to that. We'll start off with some clues, before building up to the full answer for Strands #353, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #353.

Today's NYT Strands answer — Today's theme and hints

The official theme for NYT Strands #353 is... "Pick your own prefix".

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Small fruits".

If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:

  • BEAR
  • CLUCK
  • HUSK
  • CLEAR
  • TRAWL
  • GLARES
  • SHINE

Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connection word. Today, it starts with B and ends with S.

Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's BERRIES.

Today's Strands answers

So, what are today's Strands answers for game #353?

Drumroll, please...

  • GOLDEN
  • BLUE
  • BLACK
  • RASP
  • STRAW
  • HUCKLE
  • ELDER
  • SALMON
(Image credit: Alan Martin)

...and the spangram was BERRIES.

Strands #353

“Pick your own prefix”

🔵🔵🔵💡

🔵🔵🟡🔵

💡🔵🔵

Hi Strands fans. This was a painful one for me - thanks both to the clever hint within the theme, which I completely failed to spot, and because some of the prefixes in question just aren't used in the UK.

That theme was "Pick your own prefix" and when I found GOLDEN in the bottom-left corner, I thought it was (somewhat tenuously) about positive nicknames to attach to your own.

When that failed, I resorted to looking for colors, which proved a bit more fruitful (pun very much intended), even if I didn't know why. I found BLUE in the bottom-right corner, followed by BLACK spelt backwards in the middle of the board.

But now I was stumped, and I had to use a clue, which revealed RASP. I thought back to prefixes and realized it had to be about types of berries - something confirmed when I found STRAW spelt backwards along the top of the grid.

With that, I connected BERRIES across the middle of the board for the spangram, and tried to find the remaining three answers.

HUCKLE was in the top-right corner, but then I was stumped again. I had to resort to a second clue, which revealed ELDER. That left one I've never heard of in the UK - SALMON - to complete the puzzle.

Yesterday's Strands answers

Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #352 right here.

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